Lobbyist or Honest Broker?

It is a given that we need to collect intelligence on our enemies and those who support them. You may not agree on a particular strategy that is being employed to perform this task, but at the risk of putting words into the mouths of others, you cannot seriously argue that the man assigned the responsibility for this particular mission should not be a vigorous advocate for the task at hand.

Casting DNI McConnell as a shill for a hated administration is helpful politically, but it conveniently ignores the fact that every appointee is obliged to champion the policies of the appointer. Anyone who can't stomach the job is obliged to resign.

Since he has done nothing his entire adult life but serve his country as an intelligence professional, and has been neck deep in this business for 29 years (something that no member of congress can come close to claiming), is it not more likely that he is an honest broker and by definition less inclined to bend in the political wind?

Either way he leaves his overseers scratching their heads, which says more about the latter than the former if you ask me.